but that's cutting pretty close, as you can imagine, because we go over the fiscal cliff as of monday night without a deal. so pretty tight timeline there. >> what is the thinking at this point, dana bash, that most congressional leaders feel like going over the cliff, whether they will say it publicly is one thing, but going over the cliff might be better, because on the other end of it, you can vote for tax cuts versus raising taxes for a certain number of americans, politically speaking, isn't that a better scenario for them? >> it may politically be a better secenario for some congresspeople. but it will be a catastrophe because of public opinion, the way markets would respond on january 2nd. i think politically obviously it saves a little face, particularly for some republicans who don't want to vote for tax increases. taxes increase automatically, but it isn't without consequences and we're trying to get a sense today -- the meeting that you mentioned, 3:00 p.m. at the white house, congressional leaders with the president and vice president. coming out of that, i think we may ha